Side events during the 2025 UN Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC COP 30) focused on climate-SDG synergies, the climate-health nexus, and nature-based solutions (NbS) to unlock biodiversity and carbon sequestration.

Convening on 13 November, an event on unlocking climate-SDG synergies showcased research from the Expert Group on Climate and SDG Synergies, which highlights that more than 80% of development targets are linked to climate and that coordinated, integrated approaches can maximize resource impact and deliver multiple benefits. Participants noted that the Expert Group’s work has helped in the development of the third generation of nationally determined contributions (NDCs). The event reflected on how to shift from ambition to real delivery by aligning climate planning, development priorities, and investment strategies in ways that support equity, resilience, and sustainable growth.

Participants considered findings from the 2025 Global Report on Climate and SDG Synergies, which quantifies benefits to show the scale of possible gains when countries design climate action that supports the SDGs and provides entry points to help actors integrate these approaches into policy. The report highlights that coordinated approaches generate about 40% greater efficiency in government spending.

A panel discussion explored how the findings can support implementation, with speakers noting, among others, that: public and private actors together channel around USD 2 trillion into climate-related investments, with private investors contributing more than USD 1 trillion; global goals must support outcomes that countries define for themselves; planners must consider values and distributional concerns when designing responses; and fragmented processes reduce attention to climate and development. Speakers said governments must learn to achieve more with fewer resources.

One speaker described examples in Brazil where coalitions of mayors share costs of planning tools and technologies to design better cities. Another explained that Vanuatu uses its NDC to coordinate adaptation and development. Others discussed how to ramp up ambition for the post-2030 development agenda and the next Global Stocktake (GST) in 2028.

For COP 30 Health Day, a high-level discussion focused on the Belém Health Action Plan for the Adaptation of the Health Sector to Climate Change, which was proposed by the Brazilian Ministry of Health. Over 80 countries and institutions have endorsed the Plan, with more expected to do so by the end of the COP. The Plan is based on health equity and governance with the participation of civil society.

Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary, UNFCCC, emphasized that action to protect ecosystems is also a public health intervention and that the Action Plan is a blueprint that integrates adaptation, equity, and climate justice – the “three pillars of resilient societies.”

Countries taking the floor to endorse the Belém Health Action Plan included Tuvalu, the Netherlands, Spain, Uruguay, Portugal, France, Kenya, Suriname, Japan, Norway, and Zimbabwe. 

Representatives from the Climate and Health Funders Coalition, including from the Ikea and Gates Foundations, described having committed USD 300 million to advance integrated climate and health solutions and to support the Belém Health Action Plan. Multilateral development banks (MDBs) and funds were represented in another panel.

Another side event addressed how institutional frameworks, the creation of biodiversity credits, and international development collaboration can transform nature-based solutions (NbS) into bankable initiatives and accelerate climate action, focusing on Guatemala as an example. 

Andrea Lucrecia Fión Góngora, Director of Climate Change, Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, Guatemala, stressed the need to identify clear pathways for finance linked to verified indicators, outlining key dimensions of efforts to make NbS credible so they attract finance, including, inter alia: consistent data and updated methodologies; clear rules established by governments; sharing benefits with Indigenous Peoples; and facilitating an inclusive dialogue.

Speakers also discussed research on global trends in developing biodiversity credits, underscoring that Asia’s biodiversity hotspots can make this region a bioeconomy leader, and emphasized the need to deepen partnerships, scale up NbS, strengthen data and verification capacity, and empower local communities to take the lead. One panelist described projects embracing carbon credit measures, including sustainable management of bamboo in Guatemala, capacity building for low-carbon rice innovation in Southeast Asia, and improvements in fruit and vegetable supply chain efficiency in Saint Lucia.

Speakers also emphasized:

• How robust verification systems provide the foundation for biodiversity credit systems;
• Remaining challenges in developing methodological frameworks that recognize the co-benefits of biodiversity, quantifying carbon in biodiverse contexts, and achieving institutional coordination; and
• Many developing countries have difficulties in accessing finance. 

Panelists also shared key steps for countries to turn NbS into sustainable investment opportunities.